Furlough question

[TheBestForLast]

I've been on furlough for the past 9 months. Partly because of pandemic but mainly as a scapegoat because the company wasn't doing too well in the first place and don't want to pay redundancies. I've been told as from August I need to make some hours up so I can still receive furlough. So, because the company have now to pay 20% of the furlough they've asked me to go in the office just a few hours a week so I will still only get 80% of my wage. My question is, can they do this? I thought if I was going into work I would get 100% of my wage. It's causing me a lot of stress and anxiety just thinking of going back after so long 😱

You get 100% of your wage for the hours you are actually working, and 80% for the hours you are on furlough. So if your hourly rate is £10, and you work 5 hours and are on furlough 30 hours, you’d get 5 x £10 and 30 x £8.

Flowery is correct with how it works.

So, because the company have now to pay 20% of the furlough they've asked me to go in the office just a few hours a week so I will still only get 80% of my wage.

As of July, the company can only claim 70% of your wage, but has to pay you 80%. In August and September, it’s 60%, and then the scheme ends, unless it’s changed.

It’s normal to be anxious about any change. That’ll reduce as it becomes normal for you again.

Thank you for your advice and clarifying this for me. I feel as though my head is about to explode 🤯 not very good with these things. I'm sure I'll be ok but 9 months is a very long time out of work and especially with minimum contact from them if anything at all 😕

You’ve been searching for a job in those 9 months?

Sounds like you were planning on not going back. Were you hoping for a redundancy payment?

You can't be paid for doing nothing indefinitely

I've been on furlough since it started last year and my employer got us to work from home through it all with only a brief few weeks fully off and since then I've been working 10-4 instead of 9-5.30 every day. They refer to what we are on as "flexible furlough" which apparently is a thing 🙄 so unfortunately you will have to go and work for whatever portion of the week they say you need to or risk losing your job. I've found it tough as I've never seen any evidence of how much my employer is claiming but I'm sure they have been claiming the full amount throughout and getting us to work most of the week still.

@Mummybasketball

You’ve been searching for a job in those 9 months?

Yes and I've had 4 interviews with no success. I also have 2 girls in primary school and up until the holidays it's been 1 in 1 off umpteen times for isolation due to covid, so I've found it incredibly stressful and it's not helped with no contact from work. I'm not hoping for redundancy, I'm 44 years old and always worked since I was 15. I just want to know how I stand.